the Highwayman of the Caribbean
by RenegadeNinja
Summary: sequel to messenger of the caribbean, Jack and Bella on a new little adventure based on the highwayman, by alfred noyes.
1. Chapter 1

_**The Highwayman**_

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,  
>The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,<br>The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,  
>And the highwayman came riding—<br>Riding—riding—  
>The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.<br>He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,  
>A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;<br>They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!  
>And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,<br>His pistol butts a-twinkle,  
>His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.<br>Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,  
>And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;<br>He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there  
>But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,<br>Bess, the landlord's daughter,  
>Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.<br>And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked  
>Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;<br>His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,  
>But he loved the landlord's daughter,<br>The landlord's red-lipped daughter,  
>Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—<br>'One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,  
>But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;<br>Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,  
>Then look for me by moonlight,<br>Watch for me by moonlight,  
>I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.'<br>He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,  
>But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand<br>As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;  
>And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,<br>(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)  
>Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.<br>He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;  
>And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,<br>When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,  
>A red-coat troop came marching—<br>Marching—marching—  
>King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.<br>They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,  
>But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;<br>Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!  
>There was death at every window;<br>And hell at one dark window;  
>For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.<br>They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;  
>They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!<br>'Now, keep good watch!' and they kissed her.  
>She heard the dead man say—<br>Look for me by moonlight;  
>Watch for me by moonlight;<br>I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!  
>She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!<br>She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!  
>They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,<br>Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,  
>Cold, on the stroke of midnight,<br>The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!  
>The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!<br>Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,  
>She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;<br>For the road lay bare in the moonlight;  
>Blank and bare in the moonlight;<br>And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .  
>Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;<br>Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?  
>Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,<br>The highwayman came riding,  
>Riding, riding!<br>The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!  
>Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!<br>Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!  
>Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,<br>Then her finger moved in the moonlight,  
>Her musket shattered the moonlight,<br>Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.  
>He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood<br>Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!  
>Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear<br>How Bess, the landlord's daughter,  
>The landlord's black-eyed daughter,<br>Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.  
>Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,<br>With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!  
>Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,<br>When they shot him down on the highway,  
>Down like a dog on the highway,<br>And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.  
>And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,<br>When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,  
>When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,<br>A highwayman comes riding—  
>Riding—riding—<br>A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.  
>Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;<br>He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;  
>He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there<br>But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,  
>Bess, the landlord's daughter,<br>Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.  
>.<p>

Disclaimer: as stated above and in summary-this poem is not mine, it is alfred Noyes's


	2. Chapter 2

I.

The angry sea's roiled against the Flying Dutchman, not an uncommon situation for the ship, and yet on this night, disaster, as they tried to side-by-side with another ship.

Bella pitched across the deck, cursing yet again as she tried to secure the rigging were it had torn loose.

In the past year, she hadn't changed much, due to the fact that she was no longer living, and yet neither was she dead. She was something in between, as were all those aboard the Dutchman. Her situation was just a little different. She was not a crewmember, she was more of a companion, in her duties as the Messenger of the Caribbean, carrying the last words of the dead back to their loved ones, when necessary. And ferrying messages between Captain Will turner and his beloved wife and son.

In saving her life, The Goddess of the sea made her immortal, and in doing so gifted her with two things.

The first, a tattoo on her wrist of a string of pearls surrounding a crab. The Tattoo covered the hand which had become infected ,poisoning her blood. That death was the fate she was saved from. That death was what awaited her should she break her vow.

The second gift, was a very special compass of her own, with three hands. Each hand was a different color and represented a different symbol painted on the edge of the compass. The brown needle represented the message in a bottle, and pointed to whomever she needed to deliver a message to at that time. The second needle, a green needle, represented the Flying Dutchman, the ship that had become a common ride for her, as it collected the souls of the dead and therefore those whose messages she would deliver. The third needle was Black, and one she tended to avoid looking at. This needle represented Jack Sparrow, her own immortal love.

And so, their fates have yet more in store.

.

I screeched in frustration as I hit the railing, the rough wood jarring painfully against my spine.

"Will Turner I hate you!" I screamed, fumbling once more to tie down the rigging.

The captain chuckled at the helm, the laugh lost in the wind that carried his voice.

"No You Don't!" He called back, his face alight in the storm, his eyes glinting with something otherworldly and unrecognizable.

"Couldn't wait for the storm to blow over?"

"Afraid to get wet?" He cat-called. I stood strait.

"Nev-" My words were lost as a wave washed over me, spinning me across the deck. I bounced off a canon with a dull moan and accepted a hand gratefully when a passing crewman offered it.

"Thank you, Canton!" Canton grinned. He was one of the older types, with a weathered face and eyes crinkled with wind and wet. He had peppered hair and a far-off look to his green eyes. He was also missing his left canine, which he had replaced with gold.

"Need help, Lass?" He chuckled. I glared at him, pulling a wet strand of hair from my face and shook my head.

The deck heaved and I clung to Canton.

Today was one of those days.

.

That evening I paced the captains quarters.

"A ship down and nary single message to anyone!" I fumed,. Immortality with nothing to do could really get on your nerves. Will just glanced up at me, his eyes tired and a hint amused.

"I can always set up a message for you. I never get enough of Elizabeth." He sighed wistfully.

"Yeah, Yeah, ye two are bloody adorable." I grinned sheepishly and Will waved me away, glancing back down at the maps on his desk, muttering beneath his breath.

.

I slept uneasily that night, my nerves on high, my heart clamoring in my chest, as though waiting for something, as though in anticipation.

.

II.

Captain Jack Sparrow turned gently on the wheel, his eyes across the choppy seas, just settling down from the storm. The moon gleamed with a ghostly brilliance high above him, shadowing darker the odd wisp of cloud.

His compass sat before him, guiding him on. It had been a long time since he had pointed the needle towards this particular desire. Now was the time, he thought. Tonight was the night. The needle drifted just slightly to the west. He adjusted his course accordingly, headed towards that speck of a shadow in the moonlight.

.

Thunk.

I wasn't sure what woke me. It may have been a sound, or a feeling, or my bloody rapid heartbeat. I lay there, coated in sweat, and listened to the steady roll of the waves and the occasional shuffle of the guard on deck.

I could see hints of my breath in the chilly air. I prayed that immortality protected me from the nuisance of fevers.

Rap-rap-rap. The sound of a knuckle tapping against the shuttered windows of the upper deck.

I stilled, cocking my head, and listened.

Rap-rap-rap.

Closer this time. I slid from my bunk. I had my own private quarters on the ship, courtesy of Will.

Rap-rap-rap.

I stepped lightly to the door as the sound neared me. I pulled a hidden dagger from my sleeve. I always had a dagger on me, somewhere. My hair itched beneath my rumpled bandana, I ignored it.

'Ree-ooh-ree-ooh-wu-ee-ee-ru-ru-ree'

someone whistled. I listened intently to the tune.

'Ree-ooh-ree-ooh-wu-ee-ee-ru-ru-ree'

_Heave, ho, Heave, ho, a pirates life for me._ I smiled at the tune and opened my door.

Who should be standing there, but Captain Jack Sparrow?

"'ello, luv." He grinned. I threw myself at him, holding him tight and laughed aloud.

"Now who be ye to haunt my nights, Mister Jack." I asked coyly.

"oi come back here you bonnie lass!" Jack grabbed for me and I jumped around him, swinging into my room and closing the door in his face.

"Oi! Bella!" Jack cried.

"Aye, Captain Jack?" I asked innocently enough.

"Open the damn door, love."

"oh, now, Jack, you should woo a lady before bargin' into her bedroom."

"And I haven't wooed, you, Bella darling?" He chuckled. I tilted my head.

"Oh, I suppose ye have." I replied, unbolting the lock. Jack pushed the door open and pulled me into a kiss. My heart fluttered and a tingle ran down my spine. He smelled like spice and rum and salt and he was oh so warm.

"I've missed you, Jack." I whispered when we broke apart for air.

"why miss me, love? I told you-"

"-I'll never leave ye behind, if ye'll never stay behind." I quoted with him.

Jack pulled my into another kiss, his chilled skin giving me shivers.

I was one lovesick lass.

.

III.

.

Morning rolled around with a flurry of activity on deck, and several confused cries from the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl.

My personal morning came when Will stormed right into my cabin with a cheery and sarcastic 'Good morning, Bella. Jack.'

"Captain?" I asked blearily.

"Yes?" He replied, unaffected. I glared. He smirked at the two of us and left. I groaned and leaned back against Jack, enjoying his warmth and company.

"ah-eah-mm. " I yawned. " Jack, any particular reason ye deck hopped onto the Flying Dutchman?"

"To see me bonnie sweetheart?"

"And?" I prodded. I had learned a long time ago that Jack always had an agenda.

"It has been brought to my diligent attention that something very….valuable belonging to a certain…royal personage…is going to pass right under me nose and I have a distinct feeling that it will be the most opportune opportunity. One shouldn't waste opportune opportunities."

"uh-huh."

"Well, when ones opportune opportunities bear fruit, I find it…reasonable to celebrate, and who better to celebrate with than those you hold dearest, eh?"

"Is that yer way of tellin' me that your going to do somethin' stupid, reckless, and clever and if it works then yer gonna come take me on a date."

"Something to that effect. Aye."

"Wonderful, Jack. When shall I expect your joyous return from this opportune, opportunity?" I smiled at his use of terminology.

"hmm…." Jack thought about it, nibbling on my ear as he did so. I twitched at the ticklish feeling.

"Nine days on the morrow."

"one problem."

"What is it, Luv?"

"I'll be in Singapore then, With the lovely Mrs. Turner. I have a letter to deliver her from Will."

"Then I shall meet you in Singapore! Nine days on the Morrow. Watch for me on that Horizon, Savvy?"

"aye aye, Captain Jack." I giggled, rolling over and back into his arms before he rose from my bunk. He pulled me to his chest and bent his face to mine, his mustache tickling my cheek, the heart of the black pearl rolling across my collarbone. I sighed happily.


	3. Chapter 3

IV.

Shortly after Jack left Will took the Flying Dutchman under. I would never get used to the experience of sailing on a ship underwater, but from the depths looking up, it's a whole new field of glimmering blue. It was also weird, being underwater and not drowning, or being crushed, or just floating away. Just a part of the magic of the Dutchman, I suppose.

I had a bottle tied to my belt, inside yet another missive from Will to Elizabeth and their now three year old son, William Turner the Third, or little Liam, as he was nicknamed. I was much humored to learn that the child's middle name was Jack.

I strode purposefully across the deck, recognizing the old carcass of a ship over a twisted rock that marked the drop-off point for the Dutchman, just outside the bay that would lead me to Singapore.

"Bella…" Will started, I more felt the word than heard it, and yet could understand it easily. Another trick of the magic that was the Flying Dutchman. I took pity on his soul.

"I know Will, I'll tell her. I always do." I gave him a half-hearted smile and pushed off the deck, making for the brightness of the surface. Will waited until I broke into the air before he left, his eyes once again growing cold.

.

The swim to shore wasn't unpleasant, usually. However there are always the days were a ship comes in to port and attempts to crush you beneath it's keel.

"Bleedin' damn ship. Bleedin' damn crew. Bleedin' damn bloody-"

"Miss?"

I swung around to find a port keeper. I waved him off with a muttering of 'I swam.'

I certainly looked like I swam. I was so waterlogged my bones must have been soggy, for all the weakness ad heavy numb that I felt after my swim. I stumbled into daytime Singapore and pulled a rice hat off some swine's head, shoving it on my own and kicking him square in the chest when he put up a fuss. My boots were sloshing water with every step and I had a feeling they would be ruined after that. I liked my boots.

.

I stood on Elizabeth's porch next to a beam and turned slightly, a shimmer in my vision catching my eye. I turned and could see the ocean from that point, just a single foot-wide gap through the dense forest, but it was enough to glimpse that blue horizon. I smiled softly and berated myself for girlish foolishness. I was acting like a swooning moron. I turned and rapped quickly on the door.

I was…not pleased to find John opening the door. I disliked him as a person and as a so called physician. He flushed an odd shade of red when he saw me, but wisely kept his trap shut and stepped aside.

"Elizabeth, I come bearin' gifts!" I called into the house as John closed the door behind me, shuffling his way back into the house.

"Kitchen!" came the reply. I ventured further into the house and found her and Liam sitting on the floor with another women, definitely a native of Singapore, who had what had to have been her own toddler on her lap. I nodded to the stranger and knelt to Elizabeth, giving her and Liam a hug, passing Elizabeth the bottle and Liam a little carved ship. He giggled with glee in the way that only little boys can.

"Bella, this is Chen and her little boy, Kei." I nodded to them and held out my hand. Chen shook it lightly. She was obviously of Asian decent and of Singapore, her son as well, she had the slanted eyes and dark hair, along with wide lips as I saw often in this settlement. Her son had the same look, though were his mother had a fine nose and higher cheekbones, he had the shaping's of a rounder jaw and a wider nose. Chen also looked rather ill, her skin had a clammy, yellowed quality to it, and her eyes had dark circles around them. Her smile seemed to take effort.

"Pleasure to meet ye." I nodded again. She smiled and Elizabeth said something to her in a different dialect, obviously the mothers native tongue. Chen smiled again and nodded back. Pleasantries dealt with I turned to Elizabeth and filled her in on her husbands last few weeks and my last few nights. Elizabeth loved hearing stories.

"So Jacks gone after the Kings treasure?"

"I think so."

"Is that…wise?"

I gave her a long look and we both burst out laughing. Nothing jack ever did was wise. We had relocated to the sitting room and John was currently arguing with Chen over what medicines to feed Kei. The language barrier was bothering me. I didn't like not being able to understand what was said, even if I could guess the gist of it.

"Ye know, I think I should commission a portrait of you and Liam, somethin' small like a locket that I can pass on to Will."

"That would be lovely!" Elizabeth replied, Bouncing Liam on her knee as the little tyke chewed on the toy ship I had given him earlier.

"Ye have no idea." I muttered, unfortunately, she heard me. I mentally cursed this time.

"What's wrong? Is Will alright?" She asked, her voice pained and worried. I cringed. Even now I could see the love in each others eyes and damn it was painful and tragic.

"He…He stresses, a lot. He doesn't sleep well and paces the deck when he should be in a bunk. I've peeped inta his cabins and seen them drawin's all about, half finished or torn up. He thinks he's forgettin' yer face, and he worries that he won't be able te recognize his son."

Elizabeth was in near tears when I finished and I felt a guilt tearing up my insides. I would definitely be commissioning that portrait.

.

The next morning started off with Kei letting out a wail, followed shortly by Liam. Chen was staying with Elizabeth, and had been for a few months now after Elizabeth saw her sleeping in a ditch with Kei, and discovered the girl had no home. Chen really was a girl, just into her full maturity.

I walked into the nursery to find each mother holding their individual son and John fussing over all four of them. I shook my head and returned downstairs, started on breakfast which John and would probably argue about.

.

Chances would have it, John and I didn't argue about breakfast as the Physician left shortly before on some errand or another.

Afterwards, The two mothers and I walked down to the beach. The sun was a disk of gold on a brilliant blanket of blue, the sand was heated already with the midmorning sun and the waves were just a touch chilled. We sat on a small cluster of flat-topped boulders, the same stones Elizabeth and I had sat upon when I had first visited her. The warm breeze stirred our hair and cloths but no more, and Elizabeth begged me for a story, promising Chen she would translate.

"Oh, I don't know…what kind of story? Jack, Myself? Some of the messages I've carried perhaps?" I offered. Elizabeth shook her head.

"You said once you owed Teague a lot. What's that story?" She asked. I gazed across the waters in blank surprise. It had been a long time since I'd dredged up that particular adventure.

"oh now that one….that one be…complicated, I suppose, and quite simple at the same time. Elizabeth, As Keeper of the Code and an educated woman, I take it you've read the Code's take on slavery?" I asked. After gaining immortality, I had traveled back to find Teague in better health than when I'd left him, though still ill. ' This old bag of bones still has some years left, Missy.' He'd cackled. I had presented hi the idea of allowing Elizabeth to become Keeper of the code, as she at the time stayed in one place as well. He had agreed and a copy of the Codex had been drawn up and delivered to Elizabeth, as the original never left Shipwreck Cove. Elizabeth was now both the king of Pirates and co-keeper of the code, making her he most powerful and influential pirate in the history of piracy. Not bad for a Governors daughter, not bad at all. And so now pirates brought their problems to Elizabeth's door when the need was so great.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Yes, of course. Let me see…'No Pirate, man or woman, may own or enslave another man or woman without contract signed in said man or woman's own hand and by their own will.'…I found it binding, and full of holes. You could easily force someone to sign a contract and it would hold true because they had signed it, willingly or not."

"Aye. I was young and naïve and filled with some self-sense of honor. I took it upon meself to go out and make sure no pirate ship carried slaves, regardless of that little chicken scratch in the codex."

"You ignored the law and Teague let you live."

"I were young an foolish, and he…he made me learn the hardest way from my mistakes…"

_/_

_I snuck down to the docks. The cargo ship that supplied shipwreck cove would leave tomorrow for supplies and I'd be on it….my feet made hardly a whisper on the rough floorboards, my pack hardly a jingle for the gold I'd stowed in it._

"_Were ye be going, Lass?" Teague spoke quietly, calmly. He knew why I was leaving and why I hadn't discussed it with him. I knew that. I stood strait and turned on my heel to face him. I was barely twenty, and had been with Teague for the last year, and before that I had been with Jack. I knew well that begging was a mongrels way out. I would face death strait in the eye, and so I would face Teague._

"_Tortuga."_

"_Why be that? Tired of an old mans teachings? Of an old mans company?"_

_I lifted my chin. He was doing it on purpose, the guilt. We both knew that just as he knew exactly where I was going and why. I stared at him, defiant. He could kill me for what I was doing, that we knew as well. I had raged just two days prior about the absurdity of the slavery clause, or slave ships and slavery in general, and more importantly, of Pirates honor and pirates dealings with slavery. I had raged, but I had not disobeyed. Now, I had disobeyed, my mere intent betraying me. The code was the law, and breaking the law was death._

"_No." I told him, unspecific. I would not let my eyes burn with the tears, though they tried, I would not let my voice wobble, though it attempted. He nodded slightly, though I wasn't sure why, at the time. His hand rested on the hilt of his pistol and so I forced my eyes to stay on his as I waited. My heart pounded in my ears and I waited._

"_Bring me a drink, when ye return." He said in the same unaffected tone as before. I almost shook with relief as I turned away and said softly._

"_I won't be returning, Captain Teague."_

_As I walked away he said even more softly, words that I could not hear._

"_oh, ye'll be returning, Lass, though I fear in what condition it be."_

_/_

"- and so I left. Te make one of the greatest mistakes of me life." I took a break from my tale as Elizabeth translated the story for Chen. One of the greatest mistakes indeed.

I glanced out over the Horizon in the same subconscious manner that brought my hand to the pendant that hung from my neck.

V.

/

_I had found my way into Tortuga, and my way onto a ship that was rumored to deal with slaves. The captain was boorish enough, and I found myself safer in the guise of a lad, rather than the lass that I was. I had chopped my hair short and changed slightly my manner of dress. I bound my chest flat and wore two blouses to cover the fact, I donned my bandana around my forehead rather than over my hair and had given up wearing any feminine jewelry, instead I now bore one heavy silver ring on my thumb and tied dyed strips of cloth around the pearl pendant to disguise it._

_And to the world, I had become a lad by the name of Sparrow. My own little humor._

"_Keep working you filthy rats!" The first mate called over the deck, earning me another kick to the rear. I grunt and dodged too late to avoid the blow and ended up sprawled on the planks, my brush clattered ahead of me. I growled and grabbed at it, pushing myself back up, glaring at the first mate, a short, stocky man with a mean temper by the name of John Hutch. He sneered and moved on, kicking some other poor unfortunate soul. I continued scrubbing the deck, the constant swish-scuff of the rough tool lulling me into the motion, oblivious to the world with the sea breeze on my face and the sun on my back._

_._

_I approached the captain one twilight as he retired to his cabin._

"_Sir, rumor has it that this ship be dealin' in slaves." I stated bluntly, intentionally deepening my voice to maintain my façade._

"_Aye."_

"_Captain, surely pride as a pirate finds this...abhorrence of dealin's beneath you?"_

_The captain blustered at the un-intended and intended insult._

"_you shut yer trap ye scurvy dog and do as yer told!" He blustered, grabbing me painfully by the shoulder and pulling my face to his as he yelled._

"_ownen another man ain't right, with all due respec' sir!" I ground out._

_His right hook to my jaw ended the conversation and the debate. I knew the bone was fractured and I knew I had gone in over my head. If this was the attitude, then were was the honor. Even the code, as moronic as I had found some of its laws, had honor. I stood there bitterly before returning to my bunk._

_._

_Nearly two weeks passed in a blur of deep aches and hard chores and small meals. Blisters calloused and skin burnt and tanned. My days passed in an uncomfortable and painful manner as I was handed the worst of the tasks for my strife with the captain, the bitter cycle however, was broken by a single call._

"_Ship Ho!" I jerked my head up, the sail line slipping from it's knot and through my fingers, I jumped and clutched it painfully as I gazed out to sea. The crude form of a ship breaking the line between the sea and the sky._

_Pirates didn't round up their own slaves, see, they took them from other ships, be it slaves on a slave-ship or the crew of a rival captain, or even hostages from some poor town, if the ransom wasn't paid or a bounty delivered._

_And that poor ship, black against the blue, was going to have one hell of a bad day._

"_Prepare yerself, Lads! Today's the day!" First mate Hutch called from the helm. Like hornets in a nest, we burst into a flurry of aggravating, buzzing motion. Swords were passed up to deck, canons were loaded and rolled into positions, gunpowder and cannonballs readied and the crew quickly fell into the hush before the storm._

_._

_The other ship never stood a chance. Our canon fire was well aimed and precise and in minutes their mast was snapped and their keel damaged. The ship would fall apart before she sailed another league. Their crew and supplies were transferred onto our ship, all the officers killed to prevent any possible organized rebellion, and to intimidate the prisoners._

_The Captain merely whispered to Hutch and returned to the helm. Hutch called orders._

"_Shackle 'em together an toss 'em in the brig."_

_The men rushed to obey orders._

"_Stop!" I yelled, anger welling up like a fresh-water stream, rising and rising and pouring out._

_Hutch glowered at me. He had taken his own pleasure from handing me out the hardest of the tasks and the smallest of rations and the harshest of punishments. No doubt that he though I was a bug beneath his shoe. An arrogant whelp in need of a whipping._

"_The code calls for at least a contract." I spoke just short of yelling, my fists clenched tight._

"_Who needs the code! Lad you need to learn that Pirates hardly need follow some silly rule-book!" He spat._

"_Where's yer honor!" I cried out, shaking in anger, my hand reaching for my dagger at my belt. I never reached it before his boot hit my chest and laid me flat on my back, pressing his weight on his foot to pin me there._

"_Who needs honor?" He sneered._

_._

_I earned a whipping for my outburst, and successive whippings for my pride and refusal to cry out or beg._

_I also earned my own set of shackles._

_._

_Days passed, my back crusted over in congealed and dried blood and my stomach growled occasionally with hunger, but the hunger didn't bother me so much. It was the dehydration and the closed in, confined quarters and the smell that toyed with me. We were all crammed into a single cell, nearly twenty of us. We were given little water and less food and beaten for noise or just for the sheer enjoyment of the crew. The stench wore against my senses and clung to me. In my cloths, my hair, my skin. The compact space in the brig left us too hot in the day and too cold in the damp night and the shackles that bound us together chaffed and rubbed and irritated, and eventually, bled._

_._

_I was delirious when it happened, and not all sure whether it was dream or reality at the time. I had a fever and everything didn't comprehend as well as it should, sound and vision were muffled and fuzzy, and my balance was off. I wasn't really sure of anything._

_I wasn't sure of the noises or flurries of action as cannon fire tore through the ship, I wasn't sure of the falling, cascading debris or the shouts or the screams. I wasn't sure of when I stood or fell or crawled or shoved or was pushed about or dragged or pulled._

_The world swirled and fazed around me as though a terrible dream._

_A dream called reality._

_._

_The ship had been attacked…no…destroyed was more the word. The officers were plumbed for information and killed, along with most of the crew. I was still in that dizzy-feverish state when we were moved and brought up onto the ruined deck. The open air and clean breeze cleared my head a little. I didn't register anything much yet though, as we were lined up ad told to kneel. I heard clearly for the first time in awhile, though this 'clearness' focused on the single sound of boots clicking across the deck._

_He walked down the line, stopping at each person, he would say something, and one of two things would happen. Either metal screeched as shackles were cut apart, or a single shot was heard before a thud._

_Clip…clip._

_His steps were slow and steady and sure._

_My head was being pushed down, so when he drew close all I could see were his boots as he stepped in front of the man to my left, whom I was directly shackled to. A word and a shot. He fell. The boots took two steps and stopped in front of me. I could focus on them, I could see the stitching and the design. The hair on the back of my neck rose and I felt that these boots in front of me meant something. The clash of metal of the shot. I struggled to lift my head and it was persistently forced down. I growled low in my throat and tried to rise, but my hands were bound and made it difficult by the fact that my head was forced down._

"_Let me see." were the words. The pressure lifted and I looked up and saw 'clearly' through my feverish haze._

_And those dark eyes looked down and saw 'clearly' me._

_I titled my head, just slightly, puzzled by this stranger, and through the fogginess that remained in my head, uncaring. My eyes were clear, my mind not quite. He had dark grey eyes and black hair and beard, just being touched with a lighter, deep shade of charcoal in his age. His nose was strait and firm and his cheekbones just a touch high. He reminded me of someone I may have met a long time ago. He seemed oddly familiar. Surely we had met before…_

"_Captain?" a man asked from behind him, breaking my thoughts. I merely tilted my head further to the side in my study of him, a habit of mine, the tilting._

"_To the Queen Anne's revenge with this one." He replied, his voice deep and rich, and unaffected. He moved on and to myself came the screech of tortured metal as my shackles were sheared and shed._

_/_

"Wait-Queen Anne's Revenge?" Elizabeth cut in. I nodded.

"B-but That's!"

"Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. The one and the same. And I did recognize him, we'd met before. But that's a different tale."

"But!"

"I'll tell ye later, now translate. And then we should retire to the house. It's getting late Elizabeth, we should rest."

I continued my tale the following afternoon.


	4. Chapter 4

VI.

/

_I screamed now, as the white-red pain flashed behind my eyes and my nerves begged me to make it stop. Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard had stolen slaves to become slaves. Branded slaves. Though he branded us, at least it was after he signed us into contracts. Those who didn't sign were killed. The fever did nothing to dull my world now as the red-hot S-brand was pressed into my flesh, on the side of my right leg, just below the knee , on the fleshy part of my calf. I bit my lip till it bled and cried as waves of pain and shock wracked my body. In the back of my mind, I idly wondered how Jack had fared when they had branded him a pirate._

_Was shoved roughly aside as the next slave was brought up and in my momentum, stumbled right out the door and onto deck. I limped to the railing and stared at the black sea and black sky, tears making tracks down my face. I couldn't stop them now. I was broken. To hell with pride and pain. I pulled my bandana from my head and wrapped my leg, leaning against the side of the ship. No one paid me any mind. I glanced up and saw the bright spot o the water, the bonfire that had been made of the ship I had been on. I felt no pity for them. I felt no pity for myself, either. I knew full and well that I had brought myself here in my foolishness. Feel no pity for fools. Feel pity for the weak, or the innocent, or the ignorant, but feel no pity for fools._

_I could feel no pity for myself. But I could loath myself. And I did. I loathed myself with every fiber of my being, for being reduced to this. There was no honor in this, crying, weeping, terrified, weak and meek form I had become._

_There was no honor in slavery._

_I turned back to face the ocean once more. Letting the black glitter of the night draw my mind and gaze from myself. Letting the roll and swell of the ocean draw my feeling and hearing away from myself. I let my world become that wide open, vast and ever-changing plane. A dark, enclosing abyss into which I could fall and let the reality drift away. For the moment, at least._

_I never realized that as I did this, I would tilt my head ad smile softly, I never realized that my eyes would close and still see that glimmering, glittering world. So far was I gone._

"_Slave." _

_So harshly was I snapped back. I turned to face Edward teach and the light left my eyes, the smile my face, the tilt my head. I cast my eyes down and waited, trembling ever so slightly._

"_Look at me." He ordered. I looked up, my lip quivered ever so slightly just once and I bit it. I looked at Edward Teach. He started at my eyes and worked his way down, sizing me up._

"_What's a lass ding as a lad in the brig with stolen slaves?" He asked. Demanded._

"_Being a fool." I muttered bitterly before I realized what I had said. I winced as looked back up at him, now worrying my lip. He chuckled._

"_What's a fool doing so far out to sea?"_

_I bit deeper into my lip until it bled freely, I could taste the metallic of it on my tongue. I could bleed, but I had damn well better not cry._

"_She doesn't know anymore." I whispered._

"_Captain!" someone called from the helm, gruff and blunt. Blackbeard turned away and I soon enough found myself put to work._

_._

_A week passed and I once more found myself retreating from reality, allowing repetition and instinct to take over, allowing further and further the recession of my personage into the dull, numbness of survival. I was allowing my spirit to die. In return, the aches of long hours of hard labor were barely felt, the pain of dried, cracked hands and lips and whippings dulled, he stiffness of cold nights and mornings, unaffecting. With time, all ills eased, with time, all true self withered away._

"_Slave!" one of the zombified officers grabbed me by the collar and hauled me away from the task I was doing._

"_Bring this to the Captain." He shoved a chart and ledger into my hand, along with a bottle, into my hands and shoved me towards the helm. I shuffled, dull to the world up to the cabin ad knocked once before entering. He didn't look up from his desk as I entered. I set the bottle on the desk with a dull clunk and shuffled the papers in my hand into something resembling a pile. It was sloppy work, and I set it down, turning to leave when he said "Wait." I stood there, staring at the floor until an order was given._

_H stood and walked around the desk, lifting my chin with a calloused hand._

"_Still a fool?" He asked softly. I stared back blankly._

"_Captain?" I replied, the fogginess of my brain swirling about, trying to process and push something to the forefront of my mind._

_His eyebrows rose a tiny fraction and he sighed, leaning back against his desk, back strait._

"_I see many a fools. Few of which would recognize themselves. I see many a sailor. Few of which will look out at the sea and truly see what they are looking at."_

_I furrowed my brow, uncomprehending, and nodded anyway. His voice flowed easily. I liked the sound of it._

"_I see many a folk. Fewer still would see me. And yet rare for even my sight, is a will strong enough to survive time. It took me awhile to recognize that face of yours. The face that matched the will."_

_I tilted my head a fraction, puzzled more, and again my brain tried to push something out of the fog, struggling to remember, to comprehend, to understand._

"_Bella." he said, almost as if in afterthought._

_I nodded slowly. It sounded right. Was that my name?_

"_It almost made an old man sad." He sighed, and waved me from the room. I left, and quickly forgot whatever stirrings the fog had churned up._

_._

_That evening I could find no comfort from my bunk, a change as usually I was asleep by the time I hit the thin mat and tarping. My mind found a clam, thinkable space, surrounded by the all-concealing fog. In this space I found discomfort in the freezing lump beneath my collarbone. With sluggish fingers I tugged the small cloth-bound ball from under me and struggled with the wrappings, letting them fall to the floor._

_The smooth surface of the pearl was icy to my calloused fingers, and the silver sea-critters gleamed dully in the flickering lamplight._

_I stared at the glossy surface through the night, allowing it to fill my head with its elegant image._

_._

_Days more and more passed in the same endless cycle of labor and blankness. Occasionally I would find myself staring at the pendant cradled by my hand. I would stare for hours at it. It brought clarity to my mind, if not my memories._

_I had found myself scrubbing the deck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, my eyes riveted on the small dark jewel that sung above my hands as I worked, when the first mate called out for a ship to starboard. I kept to my work. The bombardment of another ship was work for the crew, the scrubbing of the deck was work for the slaves._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_I kept to my work and my rhythm and my dim clarity of the pearl wrapped in silver._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_The Captain emerged from his quarters, his sword at his side. I looked up now as he placed his palm to it. The other ship was heading directly for the Queen Anne's Revenge. It's blue sails striking in their color against the hazy sky. They brought stirrings to the clarity of my mind and so I stopped looking, and allowed the numbness to creep back in, before I looked again. My eyes burned and I idly wondered why. My face heated with shame and I still wondered why as a tear slipped down my cheek._

_Why?_

_The ship fell silent as a blank black flag was raised over the strange ship. I looked closer as the breeze caught it and it flashed. It wasn't blank after all. The flag bore a skull with its hands crossed over a book. My eyes wavered from the flag as a different gleam caught my eye. The gleam of Blackbeard's sword._

"_No!" I yelled before I was aware of any intent to do so. I stood for my shouts, not yet understanding why. Teach turned to me._

"_Something to say, slave?" He asked, as though my answer might amuse him._

_I tilted my head and frowned, then shook my head and went back to work._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_I yelped when his hand grabbed my shoulder. I hadn't heard him walk up behind me._

"_Come now, little girl, why did you shout for them? Hmm…friends of yours?"_

_I shook my head, then nodded, then frowned and shrugged. He clicked his tongue in disappointment and sheathed his sword in its scabbard._

_._

_The Captain allowed the ship to come alongside and allowed their captain to board. They spoke in clear, deep tones and faint hints of the conversation carried up to the helm where I kneeled, scrubbing the planks of the deck in the ever-lulling motion._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

_Swish-scuff._

"_Slave!" Edwards Teach's voice carried easily to my ears now as he called. I shuffled down to deck, wondering if I was to be punished for my outburst earlier._

"_This one?" Blackbeard asked._

"_Aye." said the other man. I looked up at him. He was tall and thin, though not painfully so. He wore his hair in long dreadlocks and beads, and held away from his face by a bandana. Age lined his face and wisdom cleared his eyes._

"_That one." He said, passing a bottle to Captain Teach. Blackbeard bit the cork out and sniffed the contents before reading the label._

"_The finest, as ever, Captain Teague. Anything else to bother?" Captain Teach asked, not affectionately, and yet not indifferently._

"_Another drink for another day, Captain Teach. I'll be needin' the contract, however." Teague replied. Blackbeard drew a slender envelope from his pocket and passed it to the other captain, who opened and read it._

"_No details slip by those old eyes of your, Edward." Blackbeard mused._

"_Nor yours…Edward." Teague glanced up at the man. Old acquaintances, then._

_Had my mind been clear, I would have known I was seeing a conversation between the two most well-known, respected, and feared pirates of my time._

_._

_I knew I had been sold and bought when I was moved to the other ship, an old ship by the name of the Misty Lady._

_What I didn't understand was why I was given a cabin and told to rest. I was a slave, I worked, ate and slept. I didn't rest._

_/_

"Teague saved me in more ways than one that day, and he saved me further over the next month as he brought me back to myself. I had truly lost who I was, most do, in a situation like that. First you lose the will, then the hope, and then everything else."

Elizabeth was staring intently at me as I finished my story. It took her a moment before she translated for Chen. I clutched the heart of the Black Pearl tightly, the little silver barnacles imprinting onto my hand.

.

VII.

The next evening found us women all sitting on Elizabeth's bed, passing a bottle of rum.

"Bella! Tells us another story…." Elizabeth pleaded, Chen nodding enthusiastically. Apparently Chen liked listening to my stories as well.

"which one?" I muttered, sipping again the spicy drink.

"How you met Blackbeard, the first time around!"

"oh…Elizabeth…No." I groaned. I'd had enough of dredging up Edward Teach.

"Fine! Then how about….hmm….Anamaria and the bells are ringing?"

"Ye really know how to push buttons." I mumbled darkly.

"Oh Bella! something, anything!"

"Alright already…hmm….let's see…..how about….ah. I have an adventure for ye."

/

_I'd been with Jack now for little under two years and handled well everything thrown my way. I was a survivor, I always came up standing or took em down with me._

_Puberty, however, was nothing I could fight and I could no longer easily hide the lumps under my shirt, and wrapping them was painful. I'd need to get undershirts and corsets soon enough, and looking like a girl on Jack's ship was not something I wanted to do. So I bound my chest._

_The monthly bleeds I could deal with and did so, without fuss or attention, and that had been my way since they started a year ago._

_But this, made me really realize I was, in fact, a girl, and my situation was awkward as hell. I was only fifteen._

_I woke a dark tunic today, to hide the wraps on my chest, and baggy breeches, so I looked more like a boy. I contemplated chopping my hair off, but I rather liked the wavy curls that seemed to bring out the lighters tones in my amber eyes. So my hair, I dealt with by piling it under my hat. As long as Jack didn't take it._

_I bound up to deck, taking the stairs two at a time and bursting out into the sunshine and balmy air. I was glad that I had chosen to go with Jack. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sunshine, until a shadow covered my light._

_I glanced up at Barbossa'a face and scurried away, up to the helm and the protective presence of Jack._

"_Mornin', Luv."_

"_Mornin' Capt'n Jack."_

_I looked out over the sea, and up at the sky. I did love life on this ship._

"_Luv."_

"_Capt'n?"_

"_It has come to my attention that yer not as…lucky in a fight as ye should be. And as that which has been brought to my attention needs my attention than the matter shall be dealt with while my attention is at hand, Savvy?"_

"_Huh?" I turned to jack ,tilting my head. He tossed a sheathed cutlass my direction and I fumbled to catch it. Fiddling with it a moment I managed to get the belt around my waist and tighten it down so it wouldn't fall._

"_Draw, Lass." Jack drew his own blade from it's sheath. I pulled mine out easily enough, though the blade was unsteady in my too-firm grip. Jack tapped his sword to mine and I dropped it. He frowned. I picked it up nervously._

"_Lass, hold it like this." He placed his hands over mine and moved my grip. I tensed terribly but gripped the blade as he showed._

_I held onto the sword when he tapped it this time._

"_Widen yer stance." He ordered, I adjusted. He flashed out with his blade and it rang against mine._

"_Hold steady, don't back off." I pressed the blade firmly and the steel rang. "Good."_

_His blade flashed in the sun once more and I tried to block, shocked as his slid down my cutlass's length and bounced off the guard at the bottom. I gulped as I realized that without the guard I probably just would have lost a finger or two._

"_Press back."_

_And so it continued._

_/_

"This 'training continued for weeks as I became accustomed to the art of swordsmanship…and eventually fist fighting. You wouldn't believe how capable a warrior Jack really is-"

My story, and our conversation was interrupted by the snap of a door being kicked in. I dove for the nightstand for my Cutlass, Elizabeth slid her hand under the mattress for hers, and Chen ran to the nursery to keep the children safe. I bolted out the door and down the stairs to a sight that would dampen any pirates day. Four kings men marched into the house, a half dozen more waiting outside. One reached for his musket and I thrust my sword, another parried the blow. We danced. A clash or steel on steel and a ring as the blades held true. Side step right-hand cut, parry, duck, back step thrust, step up, block, parry. I twirled to save my back and twirled again to my first contender, but not even I could protect both my front and back from two trained opponents.

I was quickly subdued as two more men marched upstairs, followed by half the group from outside.

"Miss Bella?" The kings man asked, his bright frock coat marking him as a sergeant. I spat in his face and struggled against those who had my arms.

"Yes. Five- nine, amber eyes, dark hair. I'd say you're her. Whose house would this be?"

I thought fast and came out on my figurative feet.

"GET OUT OF MISS CHEN'S HOUSE YOU FILTHY CUR!" I shouted. I heard the clatter as a blade feel to the ground and a scream from Elizabeth in response. Good girl, caught on fast.

"I see. No matter, we shall only be impeding on hr hospitality for a few spare days. We have received information that the fugitive known as Jack Sparrow will shortly be returning to Singapore to visit one Mistress Bella. No surname. Men, tie this one to the front post. She'll keep watch for our little brigand, shan't she?" The sergeant laughed and I bucked, kicking him square in the chest using the two men holding me as springboards.

I earned a musket butt to the jaw for that.

.

They tied me strait to the pillar on Elizabeth's porch. There was a man at every window facing the trail and two just inside the door, leaving the sergeant to wander as he pleased. Elizabeth and Chen were confined to the nursery with the children, and wisely avoided contact.

If they were to discover who Elizabeth truly was, her life, Liam's, Chen's and Kei's along with my own, were forfeit. I at least, was glad that for my fame among pirates, I was not famed among the kings men or the east India trading company.

It was cold in the night and the moon lit the trail brilliantly, but just through the tree's in that little gap, I could see the ocean and the Horizon. I shivered and the guards securing my hands yet again laughed. One took off his bright frock coat and draped it around the pillar and onto my shoulders, the other placed a musket between my feet, the barrel beneath my breast.

The bound me in this manner, laughing as they went. One grabbed my chin roughly after the ropes and knots were deemed secure and planted a kiss on my lips. I deepened his attempt and then bit off piece of his tongue. He cursed and swore and bolted back, blood spilling from his mouth. I spat several times and grinned at him, much as a wolf would.

They returned to their post inside the door.

.

I remained tied to that post that night and through the next day, The sergeant visited me several times, with cheerful jeers and insults and I remained silent for they had gagged me as well. I studied his face though, I would remember his face and his voice and his sneering smile.

The day bed into the night in a brilliant hue of purples and blues. I glanced through my gap into that darkening bay. There my gaze would stay.

The purples and blues deepened into blacks and pinpricks of glittering light.

The moon rose in a brilliant half and lit the water like a lantern.

I waited in the dark and cold and worried my hands in their bindings.

A shadow among shadows drifted across the gleaming bay and I struggled harder. I was glad for the fool who did not bind my hands together, and through the burn and pain and sweat and brought one hand around my hip, but could loosen it no further.

I strained as that shadow disappeared into the docks and my heart hammered deeply.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

My hand ached and burned from the ropes and the cold and my fingers were slick, though I wasn't sure with what.

Thump-Thump.

Thump-Thump.

I knew Jack knew the way, and would soon enough walk into this trap.

My hand made a dull popping sound as I struggled and I gasped slight, almost positive I had dislocated my pinky finger in an attempt to free my hand from the knots. My eyes burned slightly and I forced my shaking hand to slide just a teeny bit further.

Come of slide out!

Thump-Thump.

Thump-thump.

I strained harder with my fingers and almost gasped as the pad of my forefinger touched the cool metal of the musket.

I had the trigger and could get no further though I tried.

The trigger.

I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them, for I knew what I had thought I'd seen was real and I was out of time.

There was a flicker through the tree's, the barest glimmer, but I knew what it was.

It was a lantern light.

Jack was almost here.

I breathed in deep and let it out, closing my eyes firmly yet again.

I sucked in my stomach and pushed the trigger.

Musket fire shattered the night.

.

Jack hid in Singapore for three days as the kings men, under the command of one Gerald Delacey, searched for him. He was glad he had ordered the Pearl to make port at another township near Singapore. He waited for the right time to once again approach Elizabeth's house, curious, however, of the rumors that a body was removed from that area.

He shrugged it off.

On the fourth night, Jack crept through the forest, lantern less, to remain unseen. Most of the soldiers had been withdrawn from Singapore that afternoon, as they believed Jack had run.

He was not, however, prepared for the teary eyed Elizabeth who threw herself at him when she opened the door and saw who he was.

"Jack! Jack!" She cried, half-sobbing.

"Easy there, Elizabeth, Darling. What troubles yer pretty little head." Jack gently moved her back inside the house and steered her to the kitchen.

"J-Jack…she…she….oh god there was so much blood! Jack they took her body!"

"Elizabeth, calm down, lass. Stop blubbering and come out with it!" He steadied the crying woman once more.

"Bella! They tied her to the porch and she-she shot herself! They tied a musket to her side and she shot herself to warn you Jack! She saw you coming but she couldn't call out so-so sh-she-she…" Elizabeth broke down again and a babe cried in another room. Jack pulled Elizabeth in and let her cry, waiting for her to calm down, his clever mind racing.

"Bella's immortal lass, dyin's not an agenda of hers." Jack stepped back, letting Elizabeth stand for herself as he said this. He didn't seal well with weepy women.

"Jack. I watched them carry her body away. I watched them nail the cover on the box and set it out to sea, Jack. I watched that coffin drift away. I s-saw her shattered chest for myself Jack. I washed the blood off the porch."

Jack looked into her eyes and saw no wavering their, no uncertainty, no doubt. His insides chilled. He saw grief and despair and anger, but of uncertainty, their was none.

He staggered back and hit the wall as though struck, his hands clenching and unclenching and his eyes wide with disbelief.

Hs hand drifted, his fingers running across the brim of his hat as emotions flickered across his face.

His eyes eventually narrowed, settling on anger as he jumped up and strode from the house, his steps, for one, a steady march.

There was hell to pay.

Elizabeth watched him go.

.

The next morning found three soldiers and one Gerald Delacey dead, their ship burned in the docks, and a drifting rumor that Jack Sparrow had done it, and got shot in the process.

Rumor had it he'd be dead by morning with the wound and they'd find his body somewhere.

Rumor spread.

.

Truth of it, was Jack Sparrow standing at the helm, complaining every now and again of the blood irritating hole in his chest.

But for all his gripes and camaraderie, his eyes were distant and cold.

.


	5. Chapter 5

VIII.

.

Nearly two months passed and found the tides a stirring.

The wind was tossed through the sails and the sea's were raging in blackness.

The moon rose high and full and clear, ghostly light glancing off the water as two ships came upon each other.

The saddled side by side, rocking in the swells and Jack clambered aboard the other ship with a thunk of his boots.

He greeted wearily a cold-eyed Will Turner. Will stood waiting for his companion, arms crossed, his face harsh in the ghostly light.

"Jack." He tipped his head. Jack did likewise.

"Captain Turner." He said, his face breaking into a mournful grin.

"Care fer a drink?"

.

The men settled into Will's cabin, a bottle of amber liquid between them and silence, for the most part. The odd moments of conversation about frivolous and immaterial things.

Tap-tap-tap.

Jack cocked his head and listened to the sound. Will merely lit his eyes upon Jack.

Tap-tap-tap.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed.

'Ree-ooh-ree-ooh-wu-ee-ee-ru-ru-ree' the sound drifted lightly through the door and Jack only took a moment to recognize the tune.

_Heave, ho, Heave, ho, a pirates life for me._

The door swung open and Bella limped inside, frowning at the men at the table. The corner of Will's mouth twitched up while Jack gaped, frozen momentarily in shock.

"Yu shouldn't be up and about just yet, Bella. Ye'll upset my father."

"Bill Turner worries like a hen." Bella said, waving away the comment before she grinned down at Jack, who suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Tales tell yer dead." He croaked.

"Tales tell the same of you." She retorted, breaking into a lopsided grin. " I imagine we immortals will get many such tales before we shove off."

"aye." Jack whispered. Bella frowned.

"Aren't ye gonna hand me a drink? Me side hurts like hell, Captains!"


End file.
